ArticleFrontiers in medicine2019
Lazarus Effect of High Dose Corticosteroids in a Patient With West Nile Virus Encephalitis: A Coincidence or a Clue?
Article in Frontiers in medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- West Nile virus: epidemiology, prevention, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and open research questions.Annals of medicine · 2026Review
- West Nile Neuroinvasive Disease: Current Management, Emerging Therapies and Future Clinical Trial Priorities.Reviews in medical virology · 2026Review
- The Impact of Corticosteroid Therapy on Patients With West Nile Virus: A Retrospective Cohort Study.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Pharmaceutical Strategies for West Nile Virus in Europe, an Underrecognized Cause of Severe Disease and Mortality in Older Adults: From Supportive Care to Antiviral Development.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Severe Usutu Virus Encephalitis Treated With Corticosteroids: A Case Report.Case reports in infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Neuropsychiatric lupus or West Nile encephalitis? Diagnostic dilemmas in two SLE patients and literature review.Internal and emergency medicine · 2025Review
- Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss in an Immunocompetent Patient With West Nile Encephalitis.Laryngoscope investigative otolaryngology · 2025Article
- Abdominal Clues From a Neurotropic Virus: An Atypical West Nile Case Caught During a Fever of Unknown Origin Workup.Cureus · 2025Article
- A central role for CCR2 in monocyte recruitment and blood-brain barrier disruption during Usutu virus encephalitis.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2025Article
- Variations in West Nile viral infections across North and Central Texas.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) · 2025Article
- Development and evaluation of neutralizing antibodies for cross-protection against West Nile virus and Japanese encephalitis virus.Infectious medicine · 2023Article
- The WEST Study: A Retrospective and Multicentric Study on the Impact of Steroid Therapy in West Nile Encephalitis.Open forum infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Article
- West Nile Disease Symptoms and Comorbidities: A Systematic Review and Analysis of Cases.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2022Review
- Article
- The Use of Adjunctive Steroids in Central Nervous Infections.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2020Review
- Current Understanding of West Nile Virus Clinical Manifestations, Immune Responses, Neuroinvasion, and Immunotherapeutic Implications.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
West Nile virus (WNV) causes severe neuroinvasive disease in humans characterized by meningitis, encephalitis, and acute flaccid paralysis (poliomyelitis variant). In neuroinvasive disease, WNV infection of neurons resulting in neuronal loss is generally presumed to be the anatomical substrate for the high morbidity and mortality. However, on a molecular level, WNV infection also results in a significant upregulation of important proinflammatory molecules that have been reported to promote neuroinflammation and cytotoxicity. Currently, there is no specific treatment for the neurological complications of WNV infection. We present a 71-year-old woman who developed WNV infection that rapidly progressed to severe generalized weakness and encephalitis manifesting with bulbar signs (dysphagia, dysarthria) and persistent delirium and stupor. Consciousness remained impaired for 9 days and then she received a 5-day course of high-dose intravenous methylprednisolone (1,000 mg daily). After the first day, voluntary movement and spontaneous eye-opening increased and by the end of the second day, she was awake and responding to commands. Thereafter, she remained awake and responsive. Although the rapid improvement from stupor to wakefulness following treatment with an anti-inflammatory immunosuppressant could merely be coincidence, since these observations are of one patient, it may also provide a clue that in some cases of WNV neuroinvasive disease a
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.